Courbet's Painting Of Reality

the Salon of1850-51，where Courbet exhibited a "large burial" thatinaugurated the middle phase of his career, marked by masterpieces thatMichael Fried described as "breakthrough pictures." Yet instead of theanticipated success, critics and the public cried scandal. People laughedat the noses on the beadles, and only the mourners in this carnival-likeburial seemed to meet with approval. How could the residents of Ornans,all of whom wanted to appear in the painting, admire a work that left theParisian public in a state of shock? Why did Courbet give the cortege ofa Christian funeral the air of a dance macabre or hullabaloo? How did thisfreak of a painting, one that offended sensibilities, enable Courbet totransform a memento mori—as symbolized by the decomposing skull in theforeground near the gravedigger—into a memento vivere?...